I've never met a fly caster who could cast over 100ft that wasn't a pretty damn good caster all around. Show me someone who casts that far and i'll show you a good caster. At the very least he'll be well above average. Given all that, yes Its NOT important to be able to cast that far, but if you do, a 40ft cast into a 30mph gust of wind is a breeze. No pun internded.

All I can think about is fly fishing! I cant wait till I get a minute to check these helpful responses to my question.

So a little follow up on my question.

- Both of the TFO rods are 8wt.
- I fish in saltwater and have thrown everything from a heavy 2/0 Clouser to a #6 shrimp pattern.
- In my area on clam days casting 80' is just not enough.
- I can throw my SA Redfish 8wt about as far as I can see the backing, so maybe 70-80'
- I can throw the 5wt on either rod about 60ft
- I was double hauling within the first hour of casting and am pretty smooth.

With the 5 wt my main problem is that the rod does not load once I get a lot of line in the air, so throwing further is not going to happen.

With the 8 wt with a lot of line in the air I start to force it and it seems un-natural. I think that I am working to hard, but have no one to compare this theory with.

Thanks for all the help and advice so far.

Oh yes, and I do practice a few hours a week. I also practice many other distances and situations. Not just the long bomb...

I've never met a fly caster who could cast over 100ft that wasn't a pretty damn good caster all around. Show me someone who casts that far and i'll show you a good caster. At the very least he'll be well above average. Given all that, yes Its NOT important to be able to cast that far, but if you do, a 40ft cast into a 30mph gust of wind is a breeze. No pun internded.

You are Spot on,there are many,we have quite a few over here,like Dan's Friend are naturals,as well as many who have done heaps of practice who can use & also make any setup Talk.

In reply to The Question:
As mentioned with your Rods strung with almost any Line you should be,with practice,able to acieve reasonable Distances & definately Catch Fish.
Brian

I've never met a fly caster who could cast over 100ft that wasn't a pretty damn good caster all around. Show me someone who casts that far and i'll show you a good caster

+1. I was just thinking that before I posted and saw your answer.

Practicing for distance is some of the VERY BEST practice I've ever done. For me anyway, my accuracy at 40-50' improved drastically after I started trying for 75-80'. I can hit a towel at 40-50' with any rod I own now and honestly I haven't been really focusing on 40-50' casts all that much. I usually go for more and I'd encourage you to do so as well.

Don't fall into the "I care more about accuracy and I don't fish over 40' anyway" slump. I probably catch fish at 20-30' more than anything else, but long distance practice makes your medium distance accuracy a hell of a lot better. It did me anyway.

Oh! When you get used to your rod loading and unloading, you'll think back to this thread and wonder how you could have thought that your rod doesn't load . A 5 weight loads extremely well to me -- every one I've casted. It's really just your timing and technique that you'll need to practice. It will come, just keep at it.

Work on your double haul with 1/2 the rod like Lefty advocates -- that really helps you find the timing.

As a fellow beginner was able to cast 60'-70' in the WAREHOUSE with no wind and able to land my yarn within 6" of my target, slooppy no tight loop kinda cast but I got my distance . And I thought I was good, until I was trying to hit that same target from 30-40FT away. Boy, I missed the target left and right, over and undershoot the target. All this was in the WAREHOUSE.

Since then, I am practicing more on my accuracy trying to hit different closer spots and some of them are under the overhanging branches or the space between the trees in my backyard. The distance is 30-35FT max and the windier the better.

The result for that? My cast, confidence and distance have improved a lot when I am actually fishing.

I do a lot of blind casting in big deep water. Just for fun a lot of times I aim for little bugs, feathers, bubbles or whatnot just to see how close I can get to it. It's fun to do when the fishing is slow, and it's good practice. Plus I get fish while I'm practicing.

I used to do that, but I am having serious trouble hearing with my left ear now days. It has gotten so bad I can't tell where stuff is coming from. When I was fishing in the dark with Bill he would ask all the time "Did you hear that?", and most of the time it was "Uh... no." If I did hear it, I asked him where it was. He was pretty good at direction and distance. It's like depth perception to a one eyed guy. In my case, one eye that still needs a monacle.

Speaking of accuracy and Bill, we were having a discussion about it while we were fishing one day. I had left a stripping basket on the beach behind me. I was talking about hitting bubbles and stuff, then just to make my point I turned and looked over my left shouldr and shot one backwards into my stripping basket about 45' away. Not that you will ever need to hit a small spot behind you an awful lot, but I can do it.

Not that you will ever need to hit a small spot behind you an awful lot, but I can do it.

Actually,Dan, about half my final casts are done on the backcast from a skiff. The main reason is that when I am driving, I fish from the stern, and for safety reasons, I cast with the line off the stern.So when casting off the port side, I cast backhand.

When I fish with Wayne on his boat, he's running the electric motor on the bow, and I'm again in the stern or the cockpit - but pretty close to Wayne . So again, I keep the line off the stern and half the time, I'm casting backhand. If we were using 6 wts, I wouldn't have to do that but with 10's and 12's backcasting is the easiest and most powerful way to go, for me.

Since I naturally use a palm forward grip anyhow, it's relatively easy to cast for prolonged periods that way, even with 12's into the wind.